For decades, Iran hinted that it could close the Strait of Hormuz if hostilities between the US, Israel or its regional rivals boiled over. Yet the ease with which it has finally done so surprised not only its rivals but members of the regime itself. While regional tensions have long centred on Iran’s nuclear or missile programmes, this previously untested weapon has become its most important point of leverage, triggering the biggest energy crisis in decades and dealing an immediate hit to the global economy. One person close to the regime described the closure as a strategic breakthrough for the Islamic republic, which had before the US-Israeli war been seen to be at its weakest point militarily in years. “It feels like having an atomic bomb,” the person said, adding that enforcing the closure has been “easier than expected” and claiming that it would not be reversed “under any circumstances”. For US President Donald Trump, the development presents an unexpected challenge. Having...
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In Iran, Winning Is the Only Thing It comes down to victory in Iran. The Democrats don’t matter. Nor do the Republicans. Or NATO, or other U.S. allies. Pope Leo XIV is at best a footnote. All that now matters for this president is that the U.S. prevails and the Islamic Republic ceases to be a menace to America and its interests. The president seems to get it. His legacy, it is now clear, will rest on whether his war against Iran succeeds or fails. And that success hinges on whether Iran remains a threat not only to Israel but to our Sunni Arab friends, who have their own reasons for wanting Iran defanged. If, however, depriving Iran of the means to threaten the U.S. and its friends in the region is the true measure of our success, we won’t know for at least a decade whether we have succeeded. We Americans have short memories, as our enemies realize. At least since Vietnam, they have assumed we aren’t in it for the long haul. They have more staying power than we do, they think, an...
Navigated Menu Back Financial Times Financial Times UK 18 Apr 2026 Buttons.Search Options The food crisis to come Hunger and even famine are foreseeable consequences of the war on Iran. Now the world must act to shield the poorest from effects that will continue long after the fighting stops, argues Adam Hanieh Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE have come to occupy a fa Settings Translate Article Print Share Listen Few 20th-century transformations did more to remake the world than the “Green Revolution”. From the 1950s onwards, new high-yielding crop varieties, synthetic fertilisers, chemical pesticides and large-scale irrigation drove a sharp increase in the output of staple crops such as wheat and rice. In its more celebratory accounts, this transformation pushed back famine and helped support rapid population growth across much of Asia and Latin America. India, one of the key centres of the Green Revolution, more than doubled wheat productio...